Teachers tour New York City

Friday

Jun 27, 2008 at 12:01 AMJun 27, 2008 at 5:54 AM

Suellyn Rieckelman, Jesse Risley, and Ryan Wilson from Macomb High School and Dale Mansir from West Prairie Junior High joined 28 secondary history teachers in greater New York City for an eight-day learning experience.

Suellyn Rieckelman, Jesse Risley, and Ryan Wilson from Macomb High School and Dale Mansir from West Prairie Junior High joined 28 secondary history teachers in greater New York City for an eight-day learning experience.

The travel is provided by the Federal Department of Education's teaching American history grant. This is the final year of the second grant which covers a three-year time-frame and is in the amount of $581,019.

A total of 11 Regional Offices of Education in West-Central Illinois receive services with the fiscal agent for the grant being the Regional Office of Education No. 26 in Macomb.

The purpose of the grant is to provide the U.S. History teachers with an on-site and close connection with major historical events that have shaped our nation's history.

The guidelines of the grant require a partnering agency with in-depth historical knowledge to become a sub-contractor and to provide the historical expertise for the teachers.

Western Illinois University's history department has been the partnering agency and has provided all of the expertise for this grant and the previous grant.

Dr. Virginia Boynton, interim chair of the department of history, works closely with the management component of the grant with Dr. Larry Balsamo, former history department chair leading the historical on-site travels. His knowledge truly enhances the local visits.

This year he was joined by Dr. Richard Filipink, associate professor in U.S. history, who is a native New Yorker and was able to offer first-hand knowledge as the teachers traveled. Dr. Barry Witten, professor in the curriculum and Instruction department at WIU, has the challenging task of working directly with the teachers to compile all of the required work the teachers complete in an edited fashion and to reproduce the teachers' work on a CD.

The CD is then distributed to all 109 junior high and high schools in the 26 county area as well as the Federal Department of Education.

The teachers visited seven museums: Museum of New York City, American Museum of Natural History, New York Society Museum, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Brooklyn Museum, Lower East Side Tenement Museum and the Cloisters and Fort Tyron Park. Additional sites visited included two museums and homes of both President Theodore Roosevelt and President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

The group toured historical Yankee Stadium during its final year and attended a Mets baseball game at Shea Stadium which is the last year for this stadium too.

A historical tour of Coney Island, an improv show "Eight is Never Enough" was attended, as well as a walk down Fifth Avenue which included seeing FAO Swartz, Tiffany's, Trump Tower and the NBA store.

Two cathedrals were visited: St. Patrick's and St. Johns. Part of the group attended the taping of David Letterman while the rest of the group toured Radio City Music Hall.
The Broadway Musical, "Wicked" was a thrill for everyone. They also spent time with the cast after the production.

The teachers did a walk through China Town and Little Italy. The views from Top of the Rock and the Empire State Building were spectacular.

The teachers appeared on the CBS Early Show briefly and may appear on the new version of Candid Camera, "Got Cha" to air in August with Mario Lopez being the person who "got" the group coming from the New York City museum in their look alike blue shirts.

The group did a walking tour of Central Park seeing Strawberry Fields, Cherry Hill, and Bethesda Terrace followed by dinner at Tavern on the Green. The group was impressed with the boat tour to the Statue of Liberty and to Ellis Island. The financial district included a stop at Ground Zero and a visit to St. Paul's church.

The final evening in New York City included a Spirit Dinner Cruise which provided a view of the Statue of Liberty at night. Traveling to West Point offered a look outside the city area and the patriotism felt during the stay at Thayer Hotel and the actual tour of West Point made the group even prouder of the history of the U.S. Army.

Even though a storm held the group longer than had been expected, the teachers were ready to complete the assignments of teaching strategies which were addressed during two work sessions during the week.

Tom Murray, evaluator for the grant, traveled with the teachers and worked to develop the questions the teachers will use to pre-test their students early this fall, teach the materials from the trip to their students, and then post-test the students to assure that the knowledge the teachers gained will increase their students' learning.

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